I ONCE LIVED IN A PLACE…A WONDERFUL PLACE…AND WE USED TO SAY: “IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE”
Back in the late fifties we lived in a great place…it was excellent for a few people, tolerable for a big majority and totally unacceptable to another segment that was in the bottom of the food chain.
But make no mistake about it…if you ask, most Cubans will tell you 
that things used to be better before the Revolution with the exception of a few fanatical Marxists. No, it wasn’t paradise and no it was not perfect. Perhaps because of the widespread corruption and the protection of special interests we had the need for change. When the Fidelistas were fighting in the hills and you would hear somebody speak in their defense it sounded exactly like the Tea Baggers of today.
True, one was on the extreme left and the others are on the extreme right but their message was the same: Less government, no government interference, end government tyranny and we love freedom. Yet, 50 years later that Fidelista movement is still in power. They are still destroying an already decimated nation turning it from one of the most prosperous in the hemisphere and certainly Latin America into one of the poorest nations in the 
world…fighting for a place in those third-world countries as to which one is the worst…alongside Haiti and Somalia.
But just like the Tea Baggers these people were stubborn…you would hear them say they wanted more democracy and they got none; they wanted the government to respect human rights now they have no rights at all. The Fidelistas wanted equal opportunities for 
everyone…now they have no opportunities at all and what is worse…what they used to call “class warfare” is very much in place in Cuba today…only a very small number of people hold power and the privileges it brings while 98% of the population languishes in poverty and misery…doesn’t that sound like America today where 2% of Americans make all the money and have all the power and the middle class is rapidly disappearing?
I remember when there was “bolas” or rumors spread to vilify Batista. There were outlandish lies that eventually rang true in Fidelista’s minds…just like the Tea Baggers with Obama being a Muslim and not born in America. There were all kinds of accusations of improper, repressive and even brutal behavior on the part of the Batista government…and yet these pale in comparison to the atrocities committed by the Castro brothers in the last 50 years. No, Batista was no saint either but he was far more palatable than our Tea Baggers or Fidelistas.
And what about the repression in Cuba? It is still in place today…some people ask why the Cuban people have not risen against the Castro brothers…the answer to that is simple: you are talking about one of the most thorough, pervasive and perverse repressive systems in the world. And you can’t plot a revolution on an empty stomach…not if you are more worried about standing in line for four hours to get a piece of bread.
So that when I see these Cubans reciting the finely packaged Republican-Tea Baggers talking points I get indignant because they at some point believed in the Castro demagoguery, they were misled then and they are manipulated by Republicans every time a candidate comes down, stands in Little Havana USA and yells: “Viva Cuba Libre”.
And it begs the question…what is going to happen in Cuba once the two Castro brothers are gone…probably dead of natural causes? Very simple: this is going to continue to be a repressive totalitarian regime very much like the Chinese and just like the Chinese they will begin to bring in capitalist practices and more free enterprise but never letting go of the power.
The Tea Baggers are the Fidelistas of today. Too bad that some Miami Cubans are still recalcitrant Republicans and don’t see it that way…Marco Rubio being a good example. While all these Cubans will never admit to having supported Castro they are easily bamboozled into the Republican ideology that Republicans are the only ones who 
will stand against Castro and against Communism…or do they? Hasn’t the Castro government outlived nine American administrations?
Just think about it and tell me that the Tea Bagger’s tactics and askew philosophy is not similar to the Fidelistas’, I know, one is the extreme left and the other the extreme right…but in this case…extremism in the name of freedom is no vice as Goldwater did say - does not apply.
Let us never forget that Castro was a terrorist...he precipitated a civil war that was bloody and costly. I wonder how Americans would feel if their leader had attacked an army base, placed bombs throughout the cities and went on to fight a guerilla war in the forests of America...would this be a person that was pallatable enough to lead a nation? Yet some of these Tea Baggers are actually suggesting that 2nd Amendment options are possible if they don't get their way in the ballot box.